Alex Rodriguez was reportedly prepared to accept an 80 to 100 game suspension, and then retire

According to the NY Daily News, there was one course of action that MLB could have taken that Alex Rodriguez would not fight. Mainly because it was a course of action that Rodriguez and his team birthed.

Rodriguez was reportedly prepared to accept an 80 to 100 game suspension from MLB. And as soon as the suspension was up, he would immediately retire. Other than the light suspension, the main disconnect between Rodriguez and MLB was the parameters surrounding Rodriguez’s retirement. Rodriguez wanted to retire with pay. An idea that MLB scoffed at. And from there, they hit Rodriguez with a suspension through the 2014 season.

Rodriguez was prepared to accept an 80- to 100-game suspension and then retire following the ban, the sources said. The offer, however, came with one crucial caveat: Rodriguez would retire with pay, meaning he would collect about $80 million of the remaining $100 million on his contract.

Baseball officials refused to make the deal and instead hit Rodriguez on Aug. 5 with an unprecedented 211-game suspension for his dealings with Anthony Bosch and his now-defunct Biogenesis anti-aging clinic.

“At first it might have sounded compelling to MLB,” one source said. “But then the question of who would be paying him the guaranteed contract arose. Baseball couldn’t saddle the Yankees with that. You have to at least give them the chance to see if he can still play, or if he is going to retire because of injury.”

David Cornwell, one of Rodriguez’s lawyers, denies that they ever pushed for this plan. But why wouldn’t he push for this? All Rodriguez wants is his money. And this plan was the easiest way for him to guarantee that he gets it.